Oregon’s “O” has an alternate meaning

Oregon fans make the “O” hand shape while cheering in a game against LSU. (Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

As the University of Oregon has become the fourth ranked college football team in the nation, fans of the Ducks have shown their support by holding up their hands in the shape of the letter “O.”

They may want to start thinking of a different hand shape to show that support.

When someone who understands sign language looks up into the stands of an Oregon football game to see thousands of fans holding up their hands in the shape of an “O,” they interpret it as a large group of people screaming the word “vagina” at them.

That’s right, in sign language, holding your hands in the shape of an “O” is the symbol for vagina. When holding that “O” above one’s head like Oregon fans tend to do, it translates to screaming “vagina” at someone.

You won’t see too many of the Oregon players boldly displaying that “O.” That’s because quite a few members of the Ducks take a sign language class to fulfill their foreign language requirement.

The New York Times reported star running back LaMichael James as saying, “I did the ‘O’ once, and I never did it again.”

According the the NYT, sign language is avery popular course for Oregon football players, but not because it’s easy. University of Oregon sign language instructor Johanna Larson explains the athletes’ predisposition towards success in the subject: “Many of them have some sort of innate ability. They’ve been watching signals for so long, and many of the students on the team are real tactile learners with great peripheral vision.”

Larson was also pleased to hear that some of her students-athletes no longer make the “O” sign during games. Still, she delights in telling the 29 football players currently enrolled in her class what they’re actually saying when holding up the spade-shaped “O” sign after scoring a touchdown.

Advice to Ducks fans: A more rounded shaped “O” has a different and significantly less awkward meaning.